Tag Archives: Sew it Again

Sew 299 – Jade upcycles cotton top

Our style and taste in clothes changes over time, and those we no longer wear can be moved along by donating to opportunity shops, given to friends, swapped, sold online or at suitcase rummages – or as we are doing in the Sew it Again project this year, we can upcycle them by resewing.

My daughter Lily is in the United Kingdom at the University of Leeds this semester and before she left home, we sorted her clothing into keepers and stuff she no longer wanted.

At a Textile Beat workshop with young teenage friends yesterday, Jade found a summer cotton top and Canterbury shorts in Lily’s exit pile. She reshaped the top by cutting off the bodice, neatening the cut edge then reapplying the spagetti straps in a new way. The Canterbury shorts continue to be favourites among school girls – all they needed was a new owner and that’s Jade. Great to work with young girls interested in learning sewing skills that will last them a lifetime. Continue reading →

Sew 281 – Simpler ways with clothes

Clothing is different to fashion, as discussed in an earlier post. Clothing is traditionally used for warmth and modesty while fashion makes a statement of individual identity or conspicuous displays of wealth and status.

With the Sew it Again project this year, my friends and I are doing clothing rather than fashion. choosing to rework existing clothing in ways that are thrifty, sustainable and ethical – as well as simple, unpretentious and individual.

It is affirming to yesterday discover the Simplicity Institute in 2012 wrote about a simpler way of dressing which – for simplicity’s sake and because the words are simply brilliant – I’ve copied verbatim below. Continue reading →

Sew 279 – Think outside the circle

It is easy to be caught up in a lifestyle in which competitive market-driven forces whip up a frenzy of ‘need’ for bigger, brighter, newer and supposedly better. Through glossy advertising, we’re sold an illusion that happiness and satisfaction can be bought with the latest and greatest material possessions. Even the promotion of ‘light-green’ or so-called sustainable living often involves buying more stuff.

So it is refreshing to hear discussion about how to move beyond growth economics and towards a ‘steady-state’ economy, with a focus on simpler, less consumptive ways of living.

Last week at the University of New South Wales, the 2014 Australian Academy of Science Fenner Conference on the Environment topic was: Addicted to Growth? How to move to a Steady State Economy in Australia This spawned an article about life in a degrowth economy on The Conversation website, written by research fellow at Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at University of Melbourne, Samuel Alexander. Continue reading →

Sew 274 – Three-quarters sewn-up

One of the interesting things about a 365-day project is that you are conscious of each passing day – and October means my Sew it Again year is three-quarters complete.

The six key learnings so far are:

Two-thirds of clothing today is made of synthetic fibres, which are derived from petroleum. The other third is natural fibres (mainly cotton, but also wool, linen, silk)

We each consume 80 percent more clothing than we did two-decades ago – annual individual consumption now 11kg per person compared with 7kg per person in 1992

Based on UK statistics, nearly one-third of waste clothing ends up in landfill if it doesn’t become part of the global used-clothing trade or turned into rags Continue reading →

Sew 273 – Cut frills from silk rejects

Refashioning clothing you already have instead of buying new is what I, Jane Milburn, am doing every day this year as a mindful, resourceful and purposeful project demonstrating sustainable ways to dress by upcycling unworn natural-fibre garments.

To create Sew 273, I took a plain black silk skirt with frill hem and randomly altered the hemline before embellishing it with fringing cut from two butter-cup yellow unworn silk garments – a jacket and a striped shirt.

To begin, I cut on the diagonal across the bottom of the skirt to create a more interesting sloping hemline. I cut the bottom frill from the offcut and stitched it to the new hemline. I then cut a strip from all the finished edges (including buttons, button-holes, collar) of the silk jacket to create a long and continuous hemmed silk length which is about 4cm wide, and zigzagged it in place above the bottom black frill. Continue reading →

Sew 231 – Individual style based on shape

Whether we like it or not, we are judged by how we look and what we wear. That’s often the reason people shop for new clothes because they want to look right, wearing pieces specifically designed to be together.

But as image consultant Rita Noon says, fashion companies don’t design clothing ranges with you specifically in mind. Fashion looks great on models but we are all different – and don’t have to be slaves to what is on-trend and in-store this season.

My op-shopping hobby enables fun and affordable experimentation with colours, shapes and textures. Playing with individual style is what I’ve done for years and I’m putting it out there with Sew it Again 2014. Continue reading →

Sew 225 – Change dress to skirt

Spring is nearly upon us in the Southern Hemisphere, with advertisements for cheap consumer fashion for the new season appearing alongside the cheap fast food ads. That’s life for the majority in our consumer society, and its unlikely to change any time soon.

Sew it Again is counter-culture, reshaping and reusing clothing that already exists instead of buying new – clothing selected for natural fibre materials rather than new styles or current trends.

Sew 225 began life as a teenage strapless dress made from cotton knit, with zips used for fringing – trendy a season or two back with lots of interesting detail in the fringing. Continue reading →

Sew 224 – Opshopchop coat of colour

“Uh oh, this is not going quite as planned” … is a frequent thought when you take scissors to garments. Expect the unexpected, let it lead you to creative original solutions and don’t give up until you have a wearable result.

Upcycling is a creative discipline that requires a combination of time, skills, confidence and desire to produce something unique from rejects.

Natural fibres now make up only one-third of modern clothing according to the FAO – the rest are made from synthetics which are mostly pure petroleum. Continue reading →

Sew 213 – Op shops are tops

My sister Joanne, right, and I were raised by a mother who made clothing for herself and for us, in the time before sweatshops and cheap fast fashion. As a child, I remember being told not to say anything if we saw our young neighbours wearing our cast-offs.

Clothing is still passed on through social and family networks, to maximise use of garments and the fabrics from which they were made. Thrifty values are ingrained, so Jo and I still share unworn clothing before it is donated to opportunity shops, turned into rags or dumped.

These day clothing swaps and swish parties are happening things and I am an avid supporter of op shops – both buying from and donating to.

Op shops operate with a lot of wonderful volunteer support, play an important role in helping those in need and keeping textiles out of landfill through reuse and recycling. Continue reading →

Sew 211 – Use skills to renovate clothes

I’m up to day 211 of upcycling and renovating existing clothing to give them another chance at life through the 2014 Sew it Again project.

We don’t live in a perfect world so why expect our clothing to be so? Clothing requires maintenance and can be renovated. Sometimes we wash them more than we need to (Levis CEO doesn’t wash jeans) and often times we rush off to buy something new instead of checking and changing what we already have.

As an op shop queen, I buy very little new, am into DIY and use the library. But when I found Womankind magazine while browsing the newsagent, I saw something special.

The cover is symbolic, a beautiful butterfly collage of a woman’s face, the editorial by Antonia Case a compelling case for using time wisely to create a good life and the article about Julia Schor was the decider to add Womankind to my collection of affirming publications. Continue reading →